In this week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast, Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam interviews Ukrainian grandmaster Ruslan Ponomariov.

Born in 1983, Ruslan embarked on his chess career as one of the most astonishing prodigies in history. When he was 12, he won the U18 European Championship, when he was 14, he became the youngest grandmaster in the world, the youngest ever at that time.

When he was 18, he won the FIDE World Championship by defeating his countryman Vasyl Ivanchuk in the final of the 2002 knock-out championship.

There are many reasons to have Ruslan on the New In Chess podcast, but the main reason this time is the victory earlier this week of the Ukrainian national team, with Ruslan on first board, at the European Team Championships in Batumi.

A victory that made his country proud in incredibly difficult times, as Ukraine continues to suffer day in day out after Russia’s brutal invasion three years ago.

Ruslan spoke from his home in the vicinity of Bilbao, the Basque city in the north of Spain where he settled some thirteen years ago and where he lives with his wife Ines and their two kids.

The conversation focused not only on the European Championship, but also about the situation in Ukraine, for those who remained and for those who are scattered around Europe.

And you’ll get to know more about the stars of the winning team, 16-year-old former prodigy Ihor Samunenkov from Kyiv, who excelled at the bottom board with a 2714 performance, and the amazing 36-year-old Igor Kovalenko, who interrupted a stay of more than two years at the war front to divert his mind at the chess board.

Igor Kovalenko contributed heavily to the team’s success with a 2827 performance and impressed and inspired his team mates with his optimism and fighting spirit before he returned to the front again to defend his country.

And there’s more, such as Pono’s view on FIDE’s half-hearted attitude towards his world title and his advice to chess prodigies. Don’t miss it!

0:00 - Intro 

2:36 – Ukraine’s emotional victory at the European Team Championships

5:05 – What were Ruslan’s expectations of the tournament, being that Ukraine was the 9th seed?

7:44 – How difficult was it to get the Ukrainian team together?

9:20 – Igor Kovalenko’s fantastic performance while also fighting in the war with Russia

18:13 – What role does the war play in Ruslan’s life?

21:26 – AD BREAK

22:00 – How complicated is it for Ruslan to have a Russian FIDE president?

24:30 – The composition of the Ukrainian team

30:25 – Ihor Samunenkov

35:25 – Ruslan celebrating his 42nd birthday on the rest day of the tournament

42:20 – Where was Vasyl Ivanchuk?

46:07 – AD BREAK

46:40 – How does this European victory compare to Ruslan’s two Olympiad wins?

50:50 – Becoming “best friends” with Garry Kasparov after finishing second behind him in Linnares

53:30 – The match with Kasparov that never took place

55:22 – FIDE’s weird attitude towards Ruslan’s world title reign

59:28 – What are Ruslan’s current chess ambitions?

1:04:00 – Does the life of a chess prodigy look much different than in Ruslan’s time?

1:05:34 – AD BREAK

1:06:35 – What does Ruslan do in his free time now?

1:11:08 – Ruslan calls upon the people of the world to support Ukraine

This week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast features a narration from the Essential Sosonko, a collection of chess portraits and personal stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko. The subject of this week's story is Latvian international master Alvis Vitolins.  

Alvis was born in Riga, like his compatriot Misha Tal. And this was not all they shared in common. Like Tal, Vitolins was known for his brilliant sacrificial play. Before executing a speculative sacrifice, Tal would even say: "Let's play like Vitolins!" However, due to some personal hardships, Alvis never reached the title of grandmaster. He also did not play many international tournaments; however, in Latvia, he shone, winning several championships. He was also known for his contributions to the poisoned pawn variation of the Sicilian, which was extremely popular during that time. 

Enjoy this week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast!

A hardcopy version of "The Essential Sosonko" is available for purchase on the New In Chess website: https://www.newinchess.com/the-essential-sosonko 

This week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Dutch grandmaster Erwin l'Ami.

Erwin has been a chess professional for some twenty years now. Among his most notable successes are victories in the Reykjavik Open in 2015 and in the Dutch Championship in 2022.

Erwin loves to play in tournaments – that remains his biggest passion - but his chess activities expand into other areas as well. He’s a prolific writer, has made popular courses for Chessable, and is a highly respected trainer. In that role, he has been on Veselin Topalov’s world championship team and has worked with Anish Giri for many years.

Interviewed by Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, Erwin talks about all things chess, from the current wave of Indian players to his own experience working with champions.

0:00 – Intro

1:55 – Welcome Erwin!

2:05 – Previewing the upcoming European Team Championship

4:00 – How Erwin has maintained his passion for chess

10:53 – Erwin’s strong performance in this year’s Tata Steel Tournament

17:40 – Going from commentator to participant in Malmö

19:25 – The eccentricities of Vasyl Ivanchuk

24:00 – The incredible talent of Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus

26:45 – AD BREAK

27:19 – Faustino Oro

31:40 – How computer chess continues to evolve

36:25 – Freestyle

37:42 – The indefatigable new generation of Indian players

41:20 – Working closely with Veselin Topalov

46:40 – AD BREAK

47:20 – The Topalov – Kramnik controversy

50:15 – Cheating

52:45 – Working closely with Anish Giri

58:01 – AD BREAK

59:01 – The FIDE Grand Swiss

59:25 – The impressive play of Matthias Bluebaum

1:02:29 – Hikaru’s rating strategy

1:04:35 – The World Cup

1:07:49 – Thank you Erwin!

1:08:02 – Outro

This week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with British grandmaster Jonathan Speelman.

Jon, as he's commonly known, is a three-time British Champion and a two-time Candidate for the World Championship. In the Candidates, he has won matches against Nigel Short and Yasser Seirawan.

He was also successful with the English national team, as they twice finished second in the Olympiad, in Dubai in 1986 and in Thessaloniki in 1988, while finishing third in Novi Sad in 1990.

At the peak of his career Jon was a world top 10 player, his highest spot being number 5 in 1988. In 1987, he beat Garry Kasparov in a televised rapid game and then went on to win the event.

Jon has authored several acclaimed books and over the years he’s written literally hundreds and hundreds of chess columns. He was the chess columnist for The Independent and still is the chess columnist for the Observer. He also has a regular column on ChessBase. Besides writing about chess, Jon enjoys teaching students of all levels.

Interviewed by Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, Jon Speelman takes a closer look at the main protagonists in the FIDE Grand Swiss and comments on their performances. In the process, he shares many memories from his own career at the highest level.

Enjoy this week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast!

0:00 – Intro

5:25 – Anish’s unbeaten performance at the FIDE Grand Swiss

6:35 – Keymer’s performance and final game against Bluebaum

8:56 – Bluebaum’s strength in open tournaments

9:40 – Jon’s own experience playing long tournaments

12:00 – Mishra’s performance and his future in chess

17:48 – Gukesh’s current reign as World Champion

20:38 – Jon’s expectations going into the Grand Swiss event

22:35 – The strong performances of Anish Giri and Matthias Bluebaum

24:47 – AD BREAK

25:26 – How does Jon feel about the way qualifications for the Candidates tournament are set up?

27:50 – Andy Woodward’s performance and his prowess at solving chess puzzles

32:25 – Did Jon practice tactics a lot during his playing career?

33:55 – Jon’s work as a trainer

36:30 – How did Jon go about writing chess books in the pre-engine era?

44:30 – Drunken Tal stories

48:37 – AD BREAK

49:47 – Previewing the Candidates Tournament

51:50 – Hikaru’s unorthodox approach to reaching the Candidates

58:06 – Jon’s wish list for the Candidates Tournament

59:41 – Hans Niemann’s performance

1:03:18 – How does Jon feel about freestyle?

1:09:00 – Music

1:11:54 - Outro 

This week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast features the second part of a narration from "The Essential Sosonko", a collection of chess portraits based on personal stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko. The subject of this week's episode is Latvian chess master and trainer Alexander Koblenz. 

Picking up where the last episode left off, the second half of the story focuses on Koblenz's contributions to chess beyond his mentorship of Mikhail Tal. He co-founded a chess magazine in Latvia, directed the chess club of Riga, and authored several books. What drove his passion for chess is what he himself described as creativity. It was this creativity that sustained his passion for chess well into his seventies, radiating a "joie de vivre" that his friends described as contagious. 

The story also goes deeper into Koblenz's national and ethnic identity. Born to a Jewish family in Latvia (later part of the Soviet Union) and fluent in German as well as Russian and Yiddish, Koblenz was described as belonging everywhere and nowhere. The fall of the Soviet Union shook him, as did the death of his most famous pupil Tal not long after. Nevertheless, his relentless energy and passion for chess never left him. As Genna jokes: had Koblenz been stranded on a deserted island, within a few years there would be chess tournaments, schools and booklets of his combinations.

Enjoy this week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast!

A hardcopy version of "The Essential Sosonko" is available for purchase on the New In Chess website: https://www.newinchess.com/the-essential-sosonko 

This week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast features a narration from "The Essential Sosonko", a collection of chess portraits based on personal stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko. The subject of this week's episode is Latvian chess master and trainer Alexander Koblenz.

A four-time Latvian national champion, Alexander Koblenz (1916-1993) is best known as the coach of another, more famous Latvian: the eighth World Chess Champion, Mikhail Tal. Born into a prosperous Jewish family, Koblenz discovered at an early age that his profession would deviate from the well-trodden path laid out for him by his parents. At the age of nineteen, he began writing his first chess book, a hobby he would maintain for the rest of his life. There was also tremendous hardship: his mother and sister perished in World War II, and the annexation of Latvia by the Soviet Union brought its own set of challenges.

Enjoy this week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast! 

This week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast features a narration from "The Essential Sosonko", a collection of chess portraits based on personal stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko.

This episode is the second in a two-part story about late Soviet grandmaster Semyon Abramovich Furman (1920-1978). As the formative influence in the career of future World Champion Anatoly Karpov, Furman's own skills as a grandmaster have not always received the attention they deserve. At the age of 56, only eleven years after becoming grandmaster and a year before his death, he finished third in the Bad Leuterberg tournament of 1977, which was won by Karpov.

He also had many other interests. When bridge became popular in the 1960s, "Syoma" became obsessed with it. He was also an avid radio listener, a sometimes frowned-upon activity in the totalitarian former Soviet Union. But amongst all of his hobbies, chess always remained number one. And even after some of his pupils overtook him, Furman continued to be a coaching influence to them. Despite passing away a few months before the 1978 Karpov-Korchnoi match, his extensive work with both players made him a looming presence over the match. As Karpov later said: "I owe everything in chess to Furman."

Enjoy this week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast!

A hardcopy version of "The Essential Sosonko" is available on the New In Chess website: https://www.newinchess.com/the-essential-sosonko 

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Dutch IM Willy Hendriks, one of today’s most entertaining and interesting chess authors.

Willy Hendriks’s debut Move First, Think Later was an instant success. In a highly original and witty manner, the book looks at the sense and nonsense of methods to improve in chess. The book won the 2012 ECF Book of the Year Award and was runner-up in the 2012 ChessCafe.com Book of the Year competition.

In the meantime, Hendriks has written three more books, page turners that challenge the traditional view of chess history.

All three have met with wide acclaim. First there was On the Origin of Good Moves (2020), which was followed by The Ink War, Romanticism versus Modernity in Chess (2022), starring William Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort, and most recently, The Philosopher and the Housewife (2025), a riveting tale about Tarrasch, Nimzowitsch and the evolution of chess expertise.

Willy Hendriks is interviewed by Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, who makes no secret of the fact that he is a big fan of his books: ‘But then, of course I am biased. I love chess, I love chess history and I like people with original thoughts and a sense of humour.’

The interview focuses both on Hendriks’s books, and on the article he wrote for the latest issue of New In Chess Magazine, entitled ‘Rewriting Chess History’.

The article is a heartfelt plea to look at chess history with fresh eyes and free ourselves of several misconceived ideas that became generally accepted because they were formulated by such greats as Emanuel Lasker.

So, more than enough to talk about! Enjoy the podcast!

The New In Chess podcast can be listened to on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and the New In Chess website. To leave a comment go to our socials or e-mail us directly at [email protected].

0:00 – Intro

2:35 – Willy’s scepticism about chess history

6:30 – The story behind Willy’s work “Move First, Think Later”

12:55 – Misconceptions about chess improvement, according to Willy

15:20 – Steinitz, Lasker and the (often misconceived) origins of positional chess

20:40 – Lasker’s chess philosophy and style

25:43 – Why caricatures about chess players persist

27:25 – Richard Réti and the Tarrasch-Nimzowitsch feud

32:00 – AD BREAK

32:32 – Adolf Anderssen and the legacy of great 19th century players

38:10 – Willy’s criticism of historical ratings

44:00 – Zukertort and London 1883

47:40 – Romanticism vs modernism as a corollary to the struggle between chess amateurs and professionals in the late 19th century

53:20 – Willy’s use of wit and humour in his books

55:00 – AD BREAK

55:55 – Willy’s theory that the best way to study the historical development of chess is to look at openings

1:03:35 – What is Willy working on now?

This week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast features a narration from "The Essential Sosonko", a collection of chess portraits based on personal stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko.

This episode is the first in a two-part story about late Soviet grandmaster Semyon Abramovich Furman (1920-1978). A late bloomer in chess, who became grandmaster at the age of 45(!), Furman gradually made his way to the chess elite after the end of the Second World War. As a trainer, he is best known as a formative figure in the career of World Champion Anatoly Karpov, credited with developing the youngster's enormous talent. He also had other students, among which Genna, who refers to him as "essentially my only trainer".

Furman died in 1978 of cancer, just as Karpov was solidifying his dominance on the world stage. He is remembered as a brilliant mentor and theoretician, whose influence lived on through his students, including Genna.

The hardcopy version of "The Essential Sosonko" is available for purchase in its entirety on the New In Chess website:

https://www.newinchess.com/the-essential-sosonko 

Enjoy this week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast!

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features in interview with Indian grandmaster Viswanathan Anand.

Commonly known as Vishy, Anand is one of the greatest and most popular world champions in the history of chess, as well as one of its most admired and respected ambassadors. Although no one could blame him if he decided to rest on his laurels, Vishy remains active as a player – and he is still ranked number 13 in the world (2743), which is frankly incredible - but in the past years he has also taken on new roles.

He is Deputy Vice-President of FIDE and he is a partner in the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy in Chennai, where the cream of the highly successful young Indian generation is training and, no doubt, many youngsters whose names we do not yet know.

With a unique career like Anand’s, it’s impossible to do a career-spanning interview. Therefore Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam decided to focus on two particular events: the New Year’s tournament in Reggio Emilia (1991/92), which resulted in a sensational victory, and Anand’s personal favourite: the luxurious Amber rapid and blindfold events, held in Monaco.

0:00 – Intro

1:56 – Where does Vishy keep his countless trophies?

5:29 – Vishy recalls bursting onto the chess scene in the early 90’s, scoring victories over the world’s best

8:44 – Linares, Tilburg and Reggio Emilia 1991

17:49 – Being initially underestimated by the rest of the chess elite

22:35 – Linares 1992

26:16 – AD BREAK

26:48 – The Reggio Emilia tournaments

30:45 – Vishy’s experience of the first Amber chess tournament

40:00 – Joop van Oosterom, the billionaire sponsor of the Amber tournaments

42:30 – Why Kasparov didn’t play in the Amber tournaments

47:30 – Vishy describes finding a sort of refuge at the Amber tournaments

49:20 – AD BREAK

50:19 – “We have to talk about Lubo and John Nunn”

56:43 – Jeroen Piket

58:40 – Ivanchuk’s short-lived retirement

1:00:15 – Does Vishy see a future for blindfold chess?

1:03:15 – Vishy’s affinity for rapid chess

1:05:30 – Vishy’s memories of Reggio Emilia